Oneshot Collection
by obsessivereader95
Summary: Sorry about the title; I'll figure out a better one later. This is going to be a oneshot collection for any ideas that crop up for Harry Potter. Ask for permission if you wish to continue one as I may already be planning to continue it or have someone who has already asked. 1- Vice- "Professor, I'm afraid he hasn't left that spot for over three hours." Hurt/Comfort.
1. Mind over Matter Arc: Vice

**I wanted to start a little oneshot collection of a million different fandoms because I don't much like having a million different stories that are all only a chapter long, but then I figured no one would be able to find it as it wouldn't be under any specific category, so I'm sticking with just making oneshot collections for each fandom and adding to them whenever an idea crops up. If anyone wants to expound on them, simply ask. I'll usually be happy having someone to continue a story unless I have an idea for continuation or someone else has already asked for it.**

**That being said, this is my first Harry Potter fic, so please feel free to critique as long as you're not being cruel or stupid.**

_**I do not own the Harry Potter series (I'm not **_**that**_** smart…)**_

"_Mind over Matter." – Unknown _

_Vice_

"Professor, I'm afraid he hasn't left that spot for over three hours."

Hermione's concern was touching, but that didn't mean she had to get her nose stuck in other people's business. Honestly, if the boy wanted to waste away over his desires, who were they to stop him? After all, he himself had spent countless hours poring over the image of his own beloved.

"Leave him be for now, Miss Granger. Sometimes it takes a while to come to terms with your heart's innermost desire."

Hermione let out a small gasp. "But, Sir… is that really…? Is that really _the_ Mirror? The Mirror of Erised?"

_Of course, you stupid girl. I thought they said you were intelligent! _He thought privately, butinstead of voicing his thoughts, he merely pointed at the engraved statement.

Hermione hesitantly inched closer to the flat, reflective surface, trying to catch a glimpse of her own deepest desire. A frown crossed her expression just about an inch from the sight of her own reflection, of the reflection of her most earnest wishes.

"I suppose… I suppose I shouldn't look, Professor?" The statement came out as more off a question, the longing clearly evident in her voice.

She glimpsed a small, almost approving smile cross the professor's face before it disappeared entirely to make room for a stern expression. A hint of amusement lined his tone as he answered quietly, "I do believe that would be best."

Hermione nodded firmly with only a small, regretful glance back at the silvery surface and her friend sprawled haphazardly across the floor in front of it, entirely oblivious to the conversation behind him.

Boldly, she eyed the professor in front of her and stated, "You'll make sure he leaves it soon, won't you." The request was in the form of a statement this time, but he still nodded the affirmative, if only to remind himself that he was responsible for the student as Albus had sent him her to take care of it.

She nodded once more in goodbye and spun on her heel, exiting the room quickly without looking back.

Severus Snape walked in front of the mirror. Now that Granger had gone, the longing to look into it much fiercer than it had been when he had been led to the students in the first place.

Harry's eyes flicked up to his reflection only briefly before becoming engrossed in the image once more.

_He sees his family_, the Weasley boy had told the headmaster, just as Snape viewed the only loved one he'd ever cherished.

Auburn hair shone over familiar almond-shaped green eyes. A smile brighter than the light reflecting off his wand radiated from her face, causing a warm, consistent ache to spread through his heart as the longing to truly see her filled his icy core. Harry sat below him. One of Lily's hands rested on her son's shoulder as Harry's features shifted to match her own, his eyes notably staying the same. Her other arm had wrapped itself around Severus's shoulder as she whispered in his ear.

"He is my pride and joy, Sev. Thank you for watching over him." He knew not to look away from the mirror, for it would shatter the illusion, but her voice sounded _so_ _real_, it took his breath away.

Both broken boys marveled over the images, both transfixed on the rosy-haired individual smiling benignly down on them, both mesmerized on the future that could have been, both unable- unwilling- to notice the present they were caught within.

Neither bothered to speak when they had drunk in the sight of Lily Evans Potter, and neither ever mentioned the comforting hand Severus had placed on Harry's shoulder or the weak smile Harry offered in return.

But the experience would stay within forever, a reminder that even the worst of enemies had something in common and that desire was the most piercing vice of all.

And they would never know that the object of their affections gazed just as longingly back at them, unable to move past the few words she spoke and unable to overcome her own intense yearning.

**I may turn this into a Mind over Matter arc, but we'll see about that later on. Either way, I probably** **won't ever address this particular topic again as the vague idea I have for part two of the arc is on an** **entirely different track. Hope you liked it, and don't forget to comment, please!**


	2. Ruthless

_Ruthless_

"Severus- Sev. Please, you- you're better than this."

"I don't think I am, Lils."

"There wouldn't be tears in your eyes if you weren't."

"Always the fierce one, Lily. I've always admired you for that."

"You don't have to do this."

"Oh but I do. He's stolen everything from me. _You've_ stolen everything from me. The least I can do is repay the favor."

"You're better than this."

"So you keep telling me."

"So you keep proving to me. Put Harry down, Sev. He needs to stay here with me."

"No, he doesn't. He needs to be with me. He's mine now, just as Potter is yours."

"What's to stop you then? Why haven't you finished the deed? We're sitting ducks here; you might as well finish us off and take off with our child."

"Don't ever let that cynicism consume you, Lils. The consequences are far from bearable."

"Sev! Sev, bring him back! Severus Snape, you wretched being, give me back my child!"

**696969696969696969696969696969-HP-696969696969696969696969696969**

"You have done well, Severus. Lily suspects nothing."

"She doesn't suspect nothing, Albus. She suspects I have kidnapped her child in a fit of jealous rage!"

"Is it better than the alternative, Severus?"

"Don't you use that soft, condescending tone with me, Albus! Of course it's better than the alternative. Otherwise, I'd be marching down to her house this very moment."

"Then you have obviously done well. Sometimes, love can require a greater sacrifice than we can possibly hope to achieve. You have given so much for her, Severus. Eventually, she will realize that."

"And by then, it will be too late."

**696969696969696969696969696969-HP-696969696969696969696969696969**

"No."

"What did you say? Is that defiance I hear, Severus? We all know what comes to the defiant, Severus, and I can promise you it will be far more unpleasant for you than it has ever been if you refuse me one more time. Now, give me the boy."

"No."

"You infernal, stupid boy! Hand over the child this instant or face my wrath! I have no patience for traitors, Severus! You have shown great promise in recent years. It would be a shame to lose such a valuable asset. I am willing to overlook this mishap if you agree to hand the boy over now."

"I will not."

"You have one last chance, boy, or you will die where you stand!"

"Never."

"Avada Kadavra!"

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"I say good riddance to the slimy git. I don't see what your problem is, Lils. He obviously deserved what he got."

"Don't you dare suggest to me that Severus was anything less than a hero, Sirius! Do you not understand what he has done?"

"Other than steal my godson from beneath your nose and get himself killed right in front of him?"

"He did much more than that, Sirius."

"Now you're on his side, too, James? Has the world gone mad?!"

"You don't understand, Sirius. When Severus took Harry from Lily while I was away, he was protecting her."

"I know Voldemort had already targeted you guys, but how does kidnapping resolve any of that?"

"Sev sacrificed himself to save Harry, so that neither of us would die. I was a fool, blinded by my anger! I should have seen it sooner!"

"Shh, Lils, hush your tears. We're all together, and Harry's fine. Voldemort is dead, and we can finally live in peace. It's what Severus wanted. Don't let his sacrifice be in vain."

"Well said, Mr. Potter. Severus's sacrifice will not be in vain. He has left in his wake a legacy that will carry on his memory forever. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived."

"And Severus Snape, the reason for his continued existence. May he forever rest in peace."

**696969696969696969696969696969-HP-696969696969696969696969696969**

In the center square of Godric's Hollow stands the perfect likeness of a certain hook-nosed man with long, greasy-looking hair. Several common people catch glimpses of him as they pass by on their daily routines, hurrying along to avoid his piercing, stony glare. But every now and then, a dark-haired family living down the street stops by so that their child, a young boy now, can drop flowers by his feet.

Harry Potter always meets the man's penetrating glare with an earnest smile.

"Thank you, Sev."

**I don't own Harry Potter. Dedicated to the friends I have serving in the army and the soldiers they've lost. May they ever be remembered as the people who sacrificed themselves for a cause they believed in, even if we didn't always believe in it ourselves.**


	3. Mind over Matter Arc: Sentimentality

**Next in the Mind over Matter Arc: Sentimentality. I do not own Harry Potter.**

Snape sneered at the pieces of red-marked parchment gathered in a rather sizable pile on the desk he'd been teaching from for more than a decade. The very thought of all the grading he would have to do in his new position repulsed him. His dream job, the one he'd been waiting for the entire time he was stuck in this wretched dungeon, was now his for the taking.

But he just had to get sentimental.

Brushing the stray shreds back into the pile, he muttered an _Incendio_ and swept his gaze across the room for a final once-over.

Severus Snape was not what one would call a homely person, and his classroom reflected his personality. Although he had never really cared to add any real personal touches to the room, he could not help but feel a sort of emptiness, a cold sense of hollowness in the room. Many of his students would argue that the room only filled them with dread, and there was a time that he would have shared in their sentiment, having endured Slughorn's prior occupation with bitter annoyance.

But this room had become something of a home to him in the past few years, a place of solace where he held the control, which made it all the more grating when he thought that the Potter brat had stolen from his personal stores and all the more unnerving when he thought that Slughorn would be reoccupying the room. For just a moment, he reconsidered accepting the job from Dumbledore, convinced that he could not have the man pawing through his stores, but he shook the thought away; he had been waiting for this for _years_. He could not let that go for a mere sentimental moment.

His eyes trailed across the scrubbed-clean desks, checking under them just to be sure he hadn't lost a potion ingredient to the overabundance childish clumsiness. Something in the back corner of the room caught his eye as he stood to leave. Striding past the desks, he caught sight of the corner of a book peeking out from beneath a pile of his extra pewter cauldrons. Careful so as not to upset the precarious pile, he gently tugged the book out.

It was a potions book, grade six, and a very familiar potions book at that. Running his hand along the well-worn cover, he chanced a glance at the inside, remembering fondly how proud he had been of his little title.

There it was, right on the inside cover, proudly proclaiming that this was property of the Half-Blood Prince. If he had been a sentimental man, he probably would have chuckled a bit and kept the book for his own memory or chucked it in the garbage for reminding him of his years dabbling in dark magic.

But he was a practical man, so he placed the book in a cabinet next to another extra book he kept. Anyone who was at an N.E.W.T. level would have no need to borrow one anyways, as he had weeded out any of the irresponsible students. He smiled almost fondly at the thought. Maybe someone would find the book and use it. He'd be teaching potions even when he was no longer the potions professor.

With that thought in mind, Severus Snape, the newly instated DADA teacher, left the dungeon classroom for the last time.


End file.
